Health Care in "Early" Retirement

Hello -

I, like most people who are or who plan to retire prior to age 65 when Medicare is an option, am trying to determine the best way to address the health care issue and wanted to get thoughts from folks in this forum.

My Data:
Age: 56 and plan to retire at 57. Wife is 53.
Both in very good health with good family histories in terms of long healthy lives
Net Worth $7M (I include this for a reason - see below)

Based on my research, these are the alternatives:

1. COBRA - I could continue coverage through my employer via COBRA. This will be a fairly expensive (I'll pay the full cost of coverage that currently my employer pays plus 2%) and it's only a temporary (up to 18 months) solution.

2. Affordable Care Act Qualified Plan - I could enroll in an ACA-qualified plan through the public exchanges. This is also expensive at about $1,400 per month for fairly poor coverage with a high deductible and out of pocket maximum. Of course, these plans are uncapped in terms of how much they will pay and there is a no pre-existing condition limitation (i.e., it'll pay for pre-existing conditions).

3. Non-ACA-Qualified Plan - I could enroll in a Non-ACA-Qualified plan. You have to go through evidence of insurability (get a help check) and the plan will not pay of pre-existing issues and there is typically a cap of $1 million. Also, the plans are temporary (typically a year long) which means you might not be permitted to reenroll if you have a health issue. These plans cost about half of what a Qualified Plan costs. One possibility would be to enroll in one of these plans and if we have a big health issue, enroll in #2 above.

4. Health Share Plan - I could enroll in one of the faith-based plans (Liberty Health Share) where you become a member and you pay a monthly amount based on your age and then the Plan uses those funds to pay various members' health care expenses. Like the Non-Qualified Plans, these plans have caps in how much they will pay and unless you can find a doctor who agrees to work with the Plan, you have to pay everything up front or get the doctor to bill you and then the Plan tries to negotiate the cost down. These plans are about half the cost of #2 above. On possibility would be to enroll into a Qualified Plan (#@) if we had a big health issue.

5. Self-Insure - The most recent thought I had was to simply to self-insure. I will be Medicare eligible in 8 years and my wife in 11 years so we have an 11 year time frame to figure out. If I chose to go with alternative 2 above, the premiums over an 11 years time period would depend on how much the premiums go up but assuming a 5% annual increase, the total cost would be $239,000, assuming a 10% annual increase the cost would be $311,000 and $409,000 based on a 15% annual increase. Also, if either my wife or I came down with and illness or had an accident, we could always enroll in #2 above although we would be liable for the expenses incurred prior to us enrolling. Do you think #5 is being penny wise and pound foolish? #3 and #4 seem pretty safe as you could always jump into #2 later. Thoughts?
Please help